"Or it might have magics that no one can even imagine yet."
Gabriel shoves his hands into pants pockets and sighs. "Okay, I get why that needs to be kept a secret. But I am not one hemisphere of the Echo's Brain."
"Do not fight your destiny," Aldith says. "When you breached the castle, I knew you must be the one who would join with the other half of the Brain and take control of the Echo."
"But who is the other half?"
"Sarah, of course."
Gabriel glances at me, but he quickly swerves his attention away. "Why would the Echo want two strangers to be the Brain? Neither of us even knows what that means, what we're supposed to do. You must be wrong. Sarah, sure, I can see that. But not me."
Does he honestly believe that I know what the heck is going on here? I don't want to be the Brain either. But Erin and Grant accepted the roles the Echo assigned to them, and they've managed to sort out what they needed to do. They'd known each other for a month or so before they entered the Echo, so they could try to fix the conniptions. Gabriel and I met yesterday. We don't get along, and he clearly wants nothing to do with becoming one hemisphere of the Echo's Brain.
I don't want to do that either. But we have no choice. What the Echo wants, it gets—or else the worlds will be destroyed. How can I convince Gabriel of that?
"Where is this Brain thing, anyway?" Gabriel asks. "Or are we supposed to find it on our own?"
"The Brain is housed inside the castle, but I'm not privy to its exact location. It does not have a physical form, as it is composed entirely of magics."
"Uh-huh. So what the fuck are we supposed to do? Can't become the Brain if we have no way to find it."
I smack his arm. "Don't be rude."
He doesn't look at me even when he hisses, "I wasn't being rude. I asked a valid question."
"You said the F-word."
Gabriel rolls his eyes. "Now you're suddenly a goody two shoes. Didn't act that way back in the woods yesterday."
"Let's not talk about that in front ofher."
Aldith gazes at us with a neutral expression. Did she hear what we whispered to each other? If so, she doesn't seem to realize what Gabriel was talking about, and I see no reason why she would. Unless she has psychic powers. God, I hope that's not the case.
"You need to digest what I've told you," Aldith says. "Please, take as long as you like. I have frozen time within the stronghold."
I stare at her. "You froze time? I had no idea you could do that. What about time in the Echo and on Earth?"
"Regrettably, I have no control over that."
"So, time will keep moving at the normal pace for our friends."
"Perhaps, or perhaps not. The Echo does what it wants to do."
Wonderful. I love all these vague explanations.
Aldith vanishes.
Gabriel and I both seem unable to look at each other, instead exchanging furtive sidelong glances. But we don't speak or move.
Finally, I can't take the silence anymore. "Should we, um, talk about this?"
"About what? That chick strongly implied we should have sex because the rooms here have a strange effect on couples. We aren't a couple, though."
"She's trying to help. And Aldith does know more about this stuff than we do."
He grunts. "So, what, she's a sex therapist too? Getting laid won't help anything."
"Won't it? Something changed when we had sex in the woods. I know you felt it too."